Equal Opportunity Versus Equal Outcome with Ben Shapiro

Show Notes

Clay Clark is interviewing conservative firebrand Ben Shapiro and gets his take on the state of affairs in the United States. Ben is the editor-in-chief for The Daily Wire, which he founded, and hosts The Ben Shapiro Show.

Benjamin Aaron Shapiro was born on January 15, 1984 and is an American conservative political commentator, writer and lawyer. He has written seven books, the first being 2004’s Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, which he started writing when he was 17 years old. Also at age 17, he became the youngest nationally syndicated columnist in the country. Shapiro writes a column for Creators Syndicate, serves as editor-in-chief for The Daily Wire, which he founded, and hosts The Ben Shapiro Show, a daily political podcast and radio show. He is the co-founder and former editor-in-chief of the media watchdog group TruthRevolt.

Ben, you were born in Southern California and your Jewish family emigrated from Russia and Lithuania, before you graduated from high school at just the age of 16, how did you build the platform that you are still creating today?

Ben, you have risen to success as a result of hard work. You’ve written seven books, the first being 2004’s How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, which you started at just the age of 17, can you share with our listeners where your passion to defend the vision of our forefathers and America’s Constitution comes from?

Ben, you’ve spoken at depth that their is not an equality of opportunity of results in America, but that there is inequality of outcome can you explain what you mean by this?

Ben, explain why you believe that socialism is so terrible?

Ben, you once said on a Fox News Interview, “This is how a lot of millenials think. This is a group of people who graduated with degrees in lesbian dance theory and then were surprised when they didn’t get a six-figure paycheck out of college I mean unfortunately they are getting a paycheck consummate with their education level and he problem is that if you have to be productive in a capitalist society in order to earn anything and and this is unfortunately a lazy generation a generation that expects things.” Can you break down, what you mean by this?

Ben, What are your thoughts on the NFL players who have chosen to take a knee rather to choosing to stand for the National Anthem?

Why do you view social justice as a perversion?

Ben, What are your thoughts on the David Green (The founder of Hobby Lobby’s) decision to fight against the Obama Administration’s Federal mandates to provide the Plan B, the Morning after and the Week-After pills to when he said, “The government is forcing us to choose between following our faith and following the law.”?

Ben, you once explained how Justin Bieber is a symptom of a big problem, during a 770 KTTH appearance when you said, “The real hallmark of success is whether you can take off your clothes, act like a jackass, drink, smoke pot, and get arrested,” What do you mean by that?

Ben, many our listeners appreciate you and the passion you bring when it comes to protecting the principles and values that made this country great. My friend, what website should they be directed to in order to learn about you and the current projects that you are working on.

Audio Transcription

Two men, 13 multimillion dollar businesses, eight kids, one business coach radio show. It’s the thrive time business coach radio show. Get ready to enter the thrive time show.

Ladies and gentlemen, on today’s show we have the legendary and often controversial Mr Ben Shapiro. He was born on January 15th of 1984. Wow. That’s controversial. No, and he is an American conservative political commentator, writer and lawyer. He has written several books, several books, seven books actually, and he heard his first book being the 2000 and fours, brainwashed how universities indoctrinate America’s youth, which he started writing when he was just 17 years old. Also at the age of 17, he became the youngest nationally syndicated columnist in the country. Shapiro writes a column for creators, send a kit, serves as the editor in chief for the daily wire, which he founded and hosts the Ben Shapiro show, a daily political podcast and radio show. He is the Co founder and the former editor and chief of the media watchdog group. Truth revolt. Ladies and gentlemen, without any further ado, back to my exclusive interview with Mr. Ben Shapiro.

All right. Thrive nation. We are in for a great conversation. We have 10 minutes of knowledge bombs with Mr Benjamin Shapiro, a Ben. You were born in southern California and you’re Jewish family immigrated from Russia and Lithuania if I’m correct, but before you graduated from high school, I believe it just the age of 16. You already built a platform that you’re still creating today. How did you build your platform?

When I was in college, so I thought when I went to college that I was going to major in music and genetic science and within the first couple of weeks of being at Ucla I saw an editorial in the paper comparing the prime minister of Israel at the time I’ll to Adolf Eichmann the Nazi. I walked into the office and I asked if I could write a counter and that turned into a regular column with that paper and then I applied cold to be a syndicated columnist and they accepted me not really knowing my age, so it really started from there and I wrote a book on my college experiences that that did very well was bestseller and yeah, everything’s sort of snowballed. It was, it was one step at a time. I think that the first time that people really got to know me probably was not in on a mass scale, was probably 2013 when I debated piers Morgan about gun control on his show. Um, but it, it had been a long time in coming and maybe I am 34 years old. I’ve been doing this for a living essentially since I was 17.

You, you, you actually have written a lot about how it’s not about any quality of opportunity. Um, you know, people have equality of opportunity in this country, but people get upset about the inequality of the results are inequality of the outcome. Can you, can you explain about equality and inequality in America today as you see it?

Sure. I mean, I think that a lot of people focused on the left on equality of outcome. The idea that no matter what your behavior, you should actually end up with an outcome that looks equal to the behavior of others. And that’s very often connected with the west perception that the distribution of skills and and privileges in American society is uneven, which has been true for every society in human history. We’re all dead. We’re all born different into different family situations. But the real question is, can you have a free society that is attempting to impose this sort of equality from above and the right wing answer to that is, of course you can’t. The only thing you can really do is guarantee everybody has equal access to the, to the workings of law and ensure that everybody is the beneficiary of equal liberties. A that that’s a philosophical difference. That really is what separates the left from the right in this country because America is free and yet inequality is is still a thing. The left complaints and the rights as well, but inequality has existed in every society ever. It will continue to exist so long as people are born differently and into different circumstances. That it’s not an excuse for analyzing certain folks or for curoil or for crushing the rights of other people because the, the government simply does not have the power to institute cosmic justice is Thomas would suggest,

but I think we should have Lebron James wear ankle weights so we could have cosmic justice. No, but also Saturday I think a lot of people do focus on the inequality of outcome. And, and one of the books she wrote back in 2000 for your first book, I believe was how universities indoctrinate America’s youth, which I believe you started just at the age of 17. Um, why do you believe that socialism is so terrible? And, and what, why did you write that book?

I mean, I wrote, I wrote that book specifically because I was on college campuses at the time. I was at Ucla and I saw this attempt to inculcate certain values from the podium and it was deeply troubling to me because it wasn’t, it wasn’t like they were offering a lot of other sides and it was insidious in the sense that the syllabi, we’re not including readings from a variety of opinions. It was all one sided readings assigned by professors who had a certain political point of view to push. That’s not the way that you get a solid education that, that, that occurred to me even as I was there.

You know, I hire a lot of millennials who work with me. A lot of great folks. I also hire, if I have interviewed some millennials who are not good folks. Um, and I think that’s true of all generations. But you wrote in a are you said during a Fox interview, something I do agree with. You said this is how a lot of millennials think. This is a group of people who, who graduated with degrees and lesbian dance theory. And then we’re surprised when they. Then they’re surprised when they go out there and they can’t find a six figure paycheck out of college. Can you talk about this mindset of, Hey, now, now that I have a degree, pay me.

Well, we’ve. We’ve basically lied to to a lot of yellow people believing that the real thing that separates earners from not under as an American society has a college degree and that’s simply not true. It depends what you major in. It’s not really educational level so much as it is capacity to do a job and so when you say to people, well, he just go to college and major in anything, you’re more likely to to earn a living that’s not accurate and it’s not only an accurate, it’s lying to, to these kids. So I don’t really blame a lot of these kids who go to college and just major in whatever stupid thing they want to major and they’ve been told that no matter what they major in their life is sad. That that’s a lie that society has been telling to them for 30 years, but it does create this sense of entitlement that’s entirely unwarranted by reality.

Uh, you know, David Green, the founder of hobby lobby, he doesn’t have a college background, but he’s built a billion dollar business and uh, he wants said that the government is forcing us to choose between following our faith and following the law. How would you respond to somebody like David Greene, who is quote unquote, a quote unquote uneducated, you know, he doesn’t have a phd from somewhere. He’s built a billion dollar business and he’s a simple minded person according to many world views because he wants to refuse to pay for abortion and other birth control with his private companies money. Uh, what do you think about David Greene’s stance on the Obama administration’s federal mandates?

I mean, he’s clearly correct. So the fact that the Obama administration, so many of the left one of crammed down their particular points of view on religious folks is certainly a violation of religious freedom. But it’s indicative of the, the of exactly that, that first principle we’re talking about for the left, they believe that the only way to achieve true social justice is to force certain people to do things that they don’t want to do and to violate the liberties of one group in favor of the privileges of another. That’s a huge mistake on, on any moral spectrum at the west engages in routinely. It’s mostly you’re going to be directed against religious people at this point because the left is secularist in orientation it which, which is connected with that governmental deal. Do you believe that government has god you are inherently secular.

Uh, you know, Justin Bieber, I heard you once described Justin Bieber is saying the real harm or that kind of being a, did Justin bieber being a sort of a, a symptom of a huge problem. You said the real hallmark of success is whether you can take off your clothes, acts like a jack ass drink and smoke pot and get arrested. What do you mean by that? When you were describing Justin bieber being a symptom of a big problem?

Well, I, I do think that we are a culture that thrives on celebrity, that reward celebrity and celebrity is in large part how many headlines you can accrue in a short period of time. The easy way to accrue with headlines is actually bad behavior, so if you act as though you have no standards, if you make a headline every once in awhile, then you are going to actually probably benefit more than if you act like a responsible human being. And then we also have this tendency to reward people for creating obstacles and then overcoming the obstacles they created in the first place. That’s a huge mistake. I mean we, we have all these sort of redemption stories, but what about the guy who didn’t actually screw up his life? He just let a responsible life and now he’s successful. We never hear those stories told because they’re not quite as interesting and dramatic as somebody who completely screws up their life and then achieved some moderate level of success. But the truth is what we should be aspiring to is making responsible decisions along every step of the way. And that’s where religious communities come in by, by upholding the, these sort of solid citizens of the community, the pillars of the community and saying, these are the folks you should be modeling after, not the folks who are making the headlines and who are interesting to watch and, and gossipy and fun to watch. And then maybe later they redeemed themselves. You shouldn’t be trying to make a good decision every step of the way.

Next hot take. NFL largely attended. The Games are attended by fans who are a largely patriotic. There. It’s a privately owned league and uh, the rules or the owner’s state, hey, we want you guys to stand for the anthem. What do you think should be done to players who choose to take a knee? What are your thoughts on this entire nfl? Negate,

well now it’s a, it’s a little bit late for the nfl to do what they should’ve done in the first place, which is they should have just suspended anybody who’s going to at the very beginning. And then they should have said, that’s our rule. That’s been our longstanding. Well, the NBA did the same thing in 1996 and it was totally fine. The problem is that now the genie is out of the bottle. They do that. It looks like they’re cracking down on this exercise of free speech. The truth is that if the NFL ignored it for a few weeks, and if president trump’s shut up about it for a few weeks, I’d probably go away. Um, but now you actually have to take a hard line. But the NFL really should do is they should get all the players in a row and they should say, look, here’s the deal.

Our ratings are going down. We’re going to have to bargain collectively with you more harshly because our ratings are going down, which means there’s less money in this business because of what you’re doing. You want to protest outside of the field. That is your problem. Do whatever you want off the field. That’s, that’s up to you. But once you are on an nfl field, you are now in our domain. And that means that you have to abide by the rules. And our rules include standing for the national anthem because this is the United States of America that seems to me know the very least that they could do. With that said, I’m not really fond of this debate because I think that it’s now been polarized, not even a long intellectually honest line. It’s basically turned into a referendum on president trump, which is pretty stupid when it really was a referendum on policing and the American flag and all the rest.

Ben Shapiro. Final question for you. You think deep and you think fast. I really can’t fathom how you do both at the same time. It’s very impressive. For any of the listeners out there that want to learn more about you or the books you’ve written, where would you direct all of our listeners to go today?

So go check out daily wire.com and check out my twitter feed at Ben Shapiro. Uh, and if you go to Amazon and just search my name, Ben Shapiro, then you’ll be able to see all the books that I’ve written. Also go to itunes or soundcloud or any podcast APP that you have. And download the Ben Shapiro show with the largest conservative podcast in the nation with bad million listeners a day.

Ben Shapiro, you’re a great American. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to bless our hundreds of thousands of listeners and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate you and thanks so much. Appreciate it. Take care of chip. What blows my mind is how deep it is and how quick witted he has. The combination of being deep, a deep thinker, and a quick thinker. I’ve never seen it before. You can tell. He’s very well read. He’s got a lot of stats and stuff right off the top of his head. He’s just willing to dive right in there. I’ve never seen somebody think that deep in that quick. Yeah. Ben Shapiro. Thanks for being on the show, chuck. Without any further ado, three, two, one. Boom.